The Checklist: Tips for a safe, healthful and nutritious summer

Summer officially starts Tuesday!

Here’s a quick list of ways to ensure you stay safe and healthy all summer long.

Jennifer LaRue Huget

Writes the Eat, Drink & Be Healthy column and Lean & Fit e-newsletter, and blogs for The Checkup.

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Help make D.C. Beantown

Look for local green beans and cucumbers later this month and in July. They may be humble vegetables, but both are worth seeking out. Monica Reinagel, author of “Nutrition Diva’s Secrets for a Healthy Diet” (St. Martin’s Griffin, March 2011), says green beans are “cousins to legumes,” so they have more fiber and protein than other green vegetables. “They’re also a good source of Vitamin C, which many people wouldn’t associate with green beans,” she says.

At about 30 calories per cup, green beans are great for snacking. “I have a crush on a new way of cooking them,” Reinagel says. Place them on a baking sheet with some olive oil and a bit of salt and roast them “till they’re a little shrivel-y and have some brown spots” indicating that their natural sugars have caramelized. Don’t want to heat the oven? Reinagel says you can toss the beans on a sheet of aluminum foil placed over the grill grate. “It’s a great way to rescue green beans that have become a little elderly,” she adds.

Cucumbers have about half the calories of a similar portion of green beans, but they don’t offer many vitamins, minerals or fiber, even with the skin on, Reinagel says. A cup of cucumber does provide almost a quarter of the bone-healthy Vitamin K you need in a day, she says. But cucumbers’ prime virtue is that they’re “95 percent water. They’re a great way to rehydrate.”

Try adding a few slices of cucumber and citrus fruit to a pitcher of ice water. “It’s very pretty, and it makes you want to drink more water,” Reinagel says.

For more ways to use your green beans and cucumbers, go to The Washington Post’s Recipe Finder: Basil Buttered Beans; Green Bean, Orange and Olive Salad; Citrus-Marinated Halibut; and Curry Chicken and Rice Salad.

Prepare for bad weather

All that summer heat can spawn lethal storms. And if the recent spate of devastating weather across the country hasn’t persuaded you to prepare your family for a natural disaster, well, I’m not sure what will.

TV coverage after the Joplin, Mo., tornado showed that some people had survived by taking cover in their underground emergency shelters, which they’d stocked with supplies. I’m not suggesting you build such a shelter, but you might want to prepare a family emergency kit and plan.

The American Red Cross offers a list of things to pack in that kit — including an extra pair of prescription glasses and a spare set of car keys (I would never have thought of either on my own!) — that is too long to include here.

Here’s an abbreviated list of items to pack: water, food, medications, clothing and bedding, sanitation supplies, tools (such as flashlights), important family documents and a first aid kit. The Red Cross also walks you through all the stepsyou and your family should take in planning for a disaster.

Score some (safe) ’screen

Summer is time to slather on the sunscreen, right?

Except maybe you’re spooked after hearing about a recent report from the Environmental Working Group, which exposed problems with the U.S. sunscreen supply. The EWG notes that the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t updated standards for sunscreen ingredients, efficacy and safety since 1978 and says some ingredients commonly used in sunscreens may not be safe — or could even contribute to cancer risk.